Thursday Poker Blog! Legal Update and WSOP news

Welcome back to Poker Thursday at the blog! After another week without internet poker, and having had my home game canceled, I am a little short on inspiration for a poker lesson. However, there is some poker news to catch you up on.

Controversy swirls as U.S. Players continue to await their funds

As most readers know by now, indictments were issued in Mid-April against operators of three major poker sites who had permitted U.S. players access to real-money poker games — Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker. Since that time, with the exception of an apparent glitch on Absolute Poker, U.S. players have been barred from playing on those sites. But what about the money held in their accounts at the time of the indictments. This author for one had a modest sum of about $700 combined sitting in Pokerstars and Full Tilt. The major sites have negotiated deals with the Department of Justice to return funds to U.S. players. However, the process has been slow with no end in sight. While Pokerstars has initiated some cashouts, Full Tilt continues to have difficulties unfreezing sufficient assets to make their U.S. players whole, raising significant fear that our money may be lost for good.

Phil Ivey takes a stand

While the internet poker boom and ensuing massive fields in top poker tournaments has kept any individual players from dominating the poker circuit in Tiger Woods/Michael Jordan type fashion, one of the 3-5 mainstays in the global poker spotlight is Phil Ivey, an 8-time WSOP bracelet winner and final tablist at the 2009 WSOP main event. Ivey, a longtime member of Full Tilt’s “Team Full Tilt,” a slew of top poker pros sponsored by the site, has taken a multi-faceted stand against Full Tilt and its delay in paying funds to its US Players. Ivey has promised a lawsuit against Tiltware, FTP’s parent company, and also is boycotting the 2011 World Series of Poker, which began on May 31st. Ivey justifies his boycott by stating that he does not feel comfortable playing the series now that government enforcement of internet gaming laws and the poker sites’ failure to act precludes many fellow Americans from having the opportunity to play in the series. The threatened lawsuit is a little more difficult to understand, though Ivey openly refers to it as a tactic to pressure Full Tilt to step up and take action to re-pay its players.

I have always been a Phil Ivey fan but part of me is skeptical about these actions. I will wait to see how it unfolds before passing judgment.

WSOP ’11 kicks off

As mentioned above, the 2011 WSOP began on May 31st, and this year will run until July 19th. The World Series of Poker is now a 58-tournament event, covering various forms of poker at varying stakes, culminating in the $10,000 buy-in main event. Tournament winners are awarded championship bracelets to commemorate their victory in addition to significant cash payouts. The WSOP is basically as good as it gets when it comes to tournament poker. It is still this writer’s dream to take a trip to Vegas during this event and play in 2-3 of the smaller-sized events. We’ll get there one of these days 😉